Contrast highlight of watercolor show

September 17, 2006|MICHAEL SNYDER Tribune Correspondent

PLYMOUTH -- An exhibition of 19 watercolors by as many artists of the St. Joe Valley Watercolor Society can be seen at the Heartland Artists Gallery through Sept. 29. The exhibition, which consists of works that focus for the most part on rural and nature scenes, offers some surprises. "Spring," an abstract by Miriam Wittkopf, is not the usual, idealized impression of spring or paintings of spring scenes. This well-thought-out collage of purple that melts into violet, balanced by greens that are highlighted by dashes of other complementary colors, inspires a "sense" of spring -- instead of straight representation, the painting's color scheme and free style creates a feeling of association with spring. Lynn Edison's "Ballerina Folklorica" ("Folkloric Dancer") is traditional in style and technique but exotic in subject matter. The focus of the painting appears to be a beautiful young Latin woman in a traditional folkloric-style white dress, seemingly suspended in time and space, enthralled in the dance steps she is performing. The many-hued swirling funnels of warm background colors that surround her figure capture the excitement of the performance and the heat of the stage lights beating down on her. The most striking feature in the painting, and possibly its true focus, however, is the smile on the dancer's face. With her brush, Edison catches in the dancer's smile that rare happiness we occasionally feel, which is usually too fleeting to be caught by a camera lens. Charlotte Bunkelman's "The Rain Is Coming" is a highly stylized piece that was inspired by the work of ancient Chinese masters. In that tradition, the goal is to create a painting that has simplicity, harmony and balance. To reach that goal, the artist used one color source, black ink, which, when diluted with water, created a color scheme of black, gray and variations of stained white. The painting's subject, which is void of action and conflict, is a small house that sits beneath a group of gnarly trees, on a spot overlooking a lake, with hills and craggy mountaintops off in the distance and a few sailboats across the lake, near the water's edge. Together, all of these elements formed a painting that is contemplative and serene. This exhibition offers something for everyone, from the novice art lover to the seasoned aficionado.